The Handmaids Tale: The Importance of Shopping Trips

Summary: Analyzes 'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood. Examines the importance of the shopping expeditions and walks to the novel.

Throughout the novel, we are presented with two different handmaids that accompany Offred on her shopping expeditions. One of these is Ofglen, who works for the Resistance movement and eventually kills herself. Ofglen is very important to the development of the novel and she is evidence to the reader that there is an underground movement. Atwood presents Ofglen as a vision of hope for Offred, reassuring her that there are people out there trying to undermine Gilead.

Ofglen is also a representative of how easily removed and replaced a handmaid is. She reminds the reader just how anonymous each handmaid is, and how they have had their identity stripped from them and are forced to carry the name of the Commander assigned to them. One day Ofglen is suddenly replaced by a similar looking Ofglen, who is the `same height' but `thinner'...